Saturday 09/06 (Very) Quickie

Dateline: Chicago -- Big topic of conversation? Carlos Quentin's injury. Does it spike his MVP chances? Does it spike the White Sox's playoff chances? Topic No. 2: Notre Dame's season opener. (You know how I feel about THAT.)

Meanwhile, it's a college football Saturday, so I'm settled in. I have no faith that Ohio will hold on against Ohio State (love Boo Jackson!), but unless OSU is trying to snow USC into taking them lightly, it doesn't look good for the Buckeyes next week in L.A.

Game Day is in Gainesville. I'm in Chicago. It's a good day.

-- D.S.

NFL Week 1 Picks

The tradition continues. This year, instead of simply making picks, straight up, I'll actually incorporate the spread (these are the same picks I put in the DQ Readers Pick 'Em group). I fully anticipate the same crappy results:

Lions (-2.5) over FALCONS
BILLS (-.5) over Seahawks
Jaguars (-3.5) over TITANS
DOLPHINS (+2.5) over Jets
PATS (-16.5) over Chiefs*
SAINTS (-3.5) over Bucs
EAGLES (-7.5) over Rams
STEELERS (-6.5) over Texans
Bengals (+0.5) over RAVENS
CHARGERS (-9.5) over Panthers
Cards (-2.5) over 49ERS
Cowboys (-3.5) over BROWNS
COLTS (-9.5) over Bears*
Vikings (+2.5) over PACKERS
Broncos (-1.5) over RAIDERS

Home teams in ALL CAPS
* - Won't cover

LW: N/A
YTD: 1-0

CFB Top 25 Picks and Preview

This isn't good: I didn't pick a single upset. That doesn't mean there isn't intrigue. From today's SN column:

Georgia has to match up with Dan "Tebow Lite" LeFevour... We'll see how Ohio State looks without Beanie Wells... Oklahoma gets a handful in fiesty Cincy (Upset Special I'm too timid to pick?)... Classic in-state rivalry between Florida and The U... After last week's win over VA Tech, can East Carolina pull another stunner over WVU?... Auburn better watch out for high-flying Southern Miss (set school record for offense last week)... Suddenly, Arizona St-Stanford is actually kind of compelling... Revamped Ole Miss is a quality test for Wake Forest... Hey, Notre Dame fans: Let me know how winning feels. I know it's been a while...

(2) Georgia over Central Michigan
(3) Ohio St over Ohio
(4) Oklahoma over Cincinnati - GOTW
(5) Florida over Miami
(6) Missouri over SE Missouri St
(7) LSU over Troy PPD
(8) West Virginia over @East Carolina
(9) Auburn over Southern Miss
(10) Texas over @UTEP
(11) Wisconsin over Marshall
(12) Texas Tech over Nevada
(13) Alabama over Tulane
(14) Kansas over LA Tech
(15) BYU over @Washington
(15) Arizona St over Stanford
(17) South Florida over @Central Fla
(18) Oregon over Utah St.
(19) Penn St over Oregon St
(20) Wake Forest over Ole Miss
(22) Utah over UNLV
(24) Illinois over E. Illinois

Other games of interest:
Georgia Tech over @Boston College
Michigan over Miami (OH)
Notre Dame over San Diego St.
Northwestern over @Duke

Friday 09/05 A.M. Quickie:NFL Picks, CFB Picks, Weekend Preview

I'll be in Chicago this weekend, digesting the sports scene -- Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Northwestern and otherwise -- in my old stomping grounds, maybe the city where I feel most at home.

(Unfortunately, the Cubs are on the road, as is Northwestern, which isn't even on TV. Sheesh. Ah well, I'm watching the Gators on ESPN with my family anyway.)

I'm flying out before my SN column is posted, but here's the main bookmark link, and the column should be there after 9 a.m.

Coming at 10:30 a.m.: CFB Top 25 Picks
Coming at Noon: NFL Picks

I'm just setting myself up for more NFL Picks punishment this season, after last season's worst-ever debacle.

I'll be posting all weekend from the road. Probably some Twitter, too.

-- D.S.

Believe in Now: Believe in Hunh?

I'm still trying to figure out what "Believe in Now" means, and why it makes for a good slogan to start the new NFL season. ("Is It Monday Yet?" remains the gold standard of NFL slogans of the past decade or so.)

-- D.S.

Varsity Letters Tonight: Dave Zirin Matters

Fantastic Varsity Letters event tonight, if you live in NYC:

Dave Zirin, one of my favorite writers and favorite people in sports media. He's got a fantastic new book out: "A People's History of Sports in the United States." (h/t: H. Zinn)

I did a Varsity Letters event with Zirin earlier this year -- he puts on an amazing show. He did his entire thing extemporaneously, and it was fascinating with high energy.

Zirin manages to do phenomenally well what few -- if any -- in sports do at all: Write about topics of gravitas. But he does it without being dour or preachy -- in the least.

In fact, part of his admirable ability is that he tackles extremely weighty subjects but makes them entirely accessible through powerful, clear-eyed analysis. I envy that tremendously.

It's a hell of a challenge to distill the past 250 years of sports into 300 pages and focus mainly on the intersection of American sports and its socio-political context. And Zirin nails it.

He plays a unique and critical role in the sports media ecosystem -- a fearless and independent critic and thinker. I would rank him on the short list of the best sportswriters in America.

If you're around the area, I highly recommend checking him out tonight -- more than that, I recommend the book highly. It made my "Put on my 'display' shelf to keep for good" list.

(Also reading tonight will be my former ESPN colleague Buster Olney -- who has better insights into the Yankees than anyone and who should have an interesting take, given the Yankees are likely to miss the playoffs for the first time in a long time this fall. Olney is one of the best guys at ESPN, and he has worked hard to turn himself into a very very good radio and TV news analyst. Also appearing tonight will be Harvey Frommer, who published an oral history of Yankee Stadium. So if you're a Yankees fan, tonight's event is even more must-see.)

Here are the details and the always-amazing interviews with the participants.

It's at 8 tonight. Happy Ending. 302 Broome on the Lower East Side. And it's FREE.

-- D.S.

Thursday 09/04 A.M. Quickie:NFL SB Pick, Brady, Beanie, Replay, More

Don't forget to sign up for the NFL Pick 'Em. See post below.

Speaking of picks, in my SN column today, I feel like I copped out by picking the Pats over the Cowboys for the Super Bowl. The whole exercise seemed rote: I feel like 5 of 6 AFC playoff teams are locks (NE, IND, PIT, SD, JAX), with the 6th -- Giants 07 notwithstanding -- being fairly irrelevant. The NFC -- again Giants '07 notwithstanding -- is uninspiring, beyond the Cowboys, the defending champs and perhaps the designated "sexy" pick, Minnesota. Pats over Cowboys? I grade myself with a "Meh."

Meanwhile, instant replay in baseball didn't have to result in overturning an ump's call in order to be deemed a huge success. The mere fact that they checked makes it worthwhile -- I'd be thrilled if there wasn't a single ump's call that was overturned between now and the end of the season.

So: Are Cubs fans freaked out yet? 5 losses in a row, Zambrano with an MRI today and Rich Harden on what feels like a month's rest between starts, which makes the likelihood of his effectiveness in a 5- or 7-game series in October...iffy, enough that it should worry Cubs fans.

CFB: I will be equal opportunity here -- Ohio State shouldn't even THINK about playing Beanie Wells this weekend, one week ahead of the make-or-break game at USC. I suspect they won't chance it. In the same way, Florida shouldn't even think about playing Percy Harvin this weekend against Miami, two weeks ahead of the SEC opener at Tennessee. They don't need him; if anything, last Saturday proved that the team has "Harvin-Lite" game-breakers in Rainey and Demps and James. Save him for when they DO need him.

Picks: Complete weekend CFB and NFL picks coming tomorrow, but there are two picks to make for tonight, and I'm sure it'll get me off to my usual banner start with the NFL:

Giants over Redskins.
Vanderbilt over South Carolina.

More later. Complete SN column here.

-- D.S.

NFL Weekly Pick 'Em: Last Chance!

Sign up now. Group name: Daily Quickie Readers. No password necessary. Show up and prove that you know more than the rest of us -- certainly me.

NBA Blogger Table of Elements

This is quite an impressive effort. Kudos to Matt and the Hardwood Paroxysm crew. (And I'm not even listed -- not that I deserve to be in any way. I'm just saying: I don't just link to these things when they include me, dammit.)

Wednesday 09/03 A.M. Quickie:NFL 08, CFB Top 25, Rudi, Dustin, More

The Giants' win in Super Bowl XLII is arguably the most important result in the NFL in the last three decades. Why? Because it shattered the smog of inevitability that had descended on the league in the wake of the Pats' "perfect season." It reminded fans that anything can happen.

That is the lead of today's SN column, Part 1 of a two-day preview of the NFL season (continuing tomorrow with my playoff picks, which I'll try to preview here today but will certainly discuss tomorrow).

Meanwhile, I can't get worked up over USC jumping Georgia for No. 1 in the CFB polls for two reasons: (1) I did the same thing in my BlogPoll ballot (below), and (2) Georgia, no matter how it did these first 3 weeks, was going to get jumped by the USC-Ohio State winner anyway.

Tatum Bell stealing Rudi Johnson's bags when Johnson got to Detroit is one of the funniest stories I have heard all year.

Dustin Pedroia for AL MVP? Let's start with AL Player of the Week, how about that? If the White Sox fall short of the playoffs and voters hold that against Carlos Quentin, I could actually see Pedroia gathering some momentum -- but only if he maintains his ludicrous pace of the last week.

Speaking of momentum, should Cubs fans get worried? That's 4 Ls in a row and arm trouble for Carlos Zambrano. (I'm going to Chicago this weekend for the first time this year, and I'm looking forward to taking the temperature of fans out there -- even if the Cubs aren't in town...d'oh.)

It's Oklahoma City Thunder. Consider yourself spoiled.

Congrats to Tiger and Elin on her latest pregnancy. What I would like to see is a double-date featuring Tiger, Elin, Bristol and Levi.

Complete SN column here.

-- D.S.

Week 1 CFB BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot, Take 2

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	2
2	Ohio State	--
3	Georgia	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Florida	4
6	LSU	7
7	Missouri	1
8	West Virginia	1
9	Auburn	1
10	Texas	1
11	Texas Tech	1
12	Wisconsin	2
13	Brigham Young	3
14	Alabama	12
15	Wake Forest	7
16	Kansas	3
17	South Florida	2
18	Utah	6
19	Penn State	1
20	Arizona State	1
21	Oregon	5
22	Oklahoma State	4
23	UCLA	3
24	Connecticut	2
25	Northwestern	--

Dropped Out: Clemson (#9), Tennessee (#17), Virginia Tech (#18), Illinois (#23).

Tuesday 09/02 A.M. Quickie:UCLA, Cliff Lee, Tom Brady, NFL, More

Summer's over. The new sports year is on. Just in time, UCLA provided the most intriguing and surprising result of the college football weekend -- saving the best for last, I guess.

UCLA, Cliff Lee and Tom Brady are the biggest storylines from today's SN column.

I'm definitely shocked by the Bruins' win over Tennessee -- probably not as shocked as Vols fans (or perhaps USC fans).

I'm less shocked by Fresno State's win at Rutgers -- I picked it Friday (then again, I picked LSU to lose to App State, so there's that). That makes 3 clear BCS-busters among non-BCS teams: BYU, Utah and Fresno State. BYU and Utah end the season playing each other, so that sorts that out; Fresno's "big" game is in two weeks, when they host Wisconsin. After that, beyond a season-killing endgame vs. Boise State, they could be the ones. (Hey, how about Fresno State vs. the Utah-BYU survivor in a Cinderella BCS Bowl? Watched by no one, of course.)

Anyway, it's nice to see Cliff Lee salvaging the Indians' otherwise lost season. He's going to run away with the AL Cy -- he's having a truly sick season.

Hey, Brewers GM Doug Melvin agrees with me that hometown "official scorers" shouldn't be the final arbiter of rulings on the field.

(Although reader Chase O. points out that if CC had been given the error, rather than the hit, who knows how his psyche would have held up as the pressure mounted. Fair enough, but given the season he is having so far, I would have liked to have at least seen him get the chance.)

Tom Brady thinks internet rumors about his health are ridiculous: I'm considering the source of those rumors (who? nfljuice.com? who?), but it's not like he or Belichick would let on anyway.

(I'm sticking with my original prediction: That Brady wouldn't necessarily be hurt now, but assuredly later in the season. He's so due. Does that count as a rumor, too?)

A few other names to know: Joe Flacco! Rudi Johnson! Robinho! Koby Clemens!

Catch you later today. If you haven't weighed in on my Top 25 ballot this week (take 1), put it in the comments in the post below -- don't worry: Tennessee is dropping out; Fresno is in.

Full SN column here.

-- D.S.

BlogPoll Week 1: First Pass

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	2
2	Ohio State	--
3	Georgia	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	LSU	8
6	Missouri	--
7	West Virginia	--
8	Florida	7
9	Auburn	1
10	Texas	1
11	Texas Tech	1
12	Wisconsin	2
13	Brigham Young	3
14	Tennessee	3
15	Wake Forest	7
16	Alabama	10
17	Kansas	2
18	South Florida	3
19	Utah	5
20	Penn State	--
21	Arizona State	--
22	Oregon	6
23	Oklahoma State	3
24	Bowling Green	2
25	Northwestern	--

Dropped Out: Clemson (#9), Virginia Tech (#18), Illinois (#23).

Chime in to the Comments with your reactions, suggestions, corrections, etc. I'm almost certainly going to add the Fresno State-Rutgers winner and move Tennessee up or down, depending on how things go tonight at UCLA.

Monday 09/01 A.M. Quickie:Sabathia, CFB Wrap, Clemson, Beanie, More

Yep, I'm working on Labor Day: How about you? (Let's hope not, if you can help it.)

That said: I'm all over this CC Sabathia "no-no-or-no?" thing from yesterday. The inanity of allowing local "official scorer" rulings to go unchecked by MLB is the lead of the SN column.

But the meat of the column is a rundown of the biggest takeaways from the weekend in college football: Clemson proving the awesomeness of the CFB regular season; Beanie Wells as existential crisis; Michigan as the least surprising result of the season; and the futility of trying to rank teams after this past weekend (less futile than a preseason rank, however) -- although I will still try.

Here is the complete SN column. I'm almost ready to put up this week's BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for your review and suggestions. Check back a little later. And go enjoy the day off, for god's sake. And think good thoughts for the Gulf Coast right now.

-- D.S.

Sunday 08/31 (Very) Quickie

The biggest story from Saturday is: Beanie Wells' foot.

Clemson totally illustrates the glorious win-or-fail existentialism of the CFB regular season.

(And it's hard to read whether Alabama is actually good or Clemson is that bad or whether it's just that the SEC is better than the ACC or what...)

I thought Mizzou's secret strength was its defense? (But with that offense, how much D do they need?)

What should trouble Michigan fans most is that the loss to Utah wasn't a surprise at all.

Bobby Petrino is VERY lucky.

Frank Beamer is not.

The No. 1 Heisman contender after Week 1 is: Pat White.

(The nation's most dominant RB is: PJ Hill.)

The No. 1 team in the country is: USC.

MLB: 2 HR for MVP Manny (*-MVP only if the Dodgers win the West)

NFL: Remember when Rudi Johnson was good?

NASCAR: Kyle Busch wins...AGAIN?

NBA: So Monta Ellis was lying about his injury? Fascinating...

I'm going to try to have my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot up here by early tomorrow morning for your feedback and review, before I submit my final version on Tuesday. A sneak peek of where my head is at:

1. USC
2. Ohio St (implied huge "if")
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma
5. Missouri
6. LSU
7. West Virginia
8. Florida
9. Auburn
10. Texas

If Wells isn't healthy, I'm not sure where to rank Ohio State. If he can't play in the USC game, I don't think they'll win there. But if I think USC is the best team in the country, presumably I don't think ANY team can beat them right now.

Feel free to weigh in with your own observations from Saturday in the Comments.

-- D.S.

CFB Saturday: Afternoon Thoughts

USC will likely get my vote for No. 1 in next week's Top 25...

...But Georgia and Ohio State are not far behind...

Affirmed: Tim Tebow is not going to win the Heisman...

But Pat White might...

All of a sudden, Beanie Wells' foot is the most intriguing body part in college football...

I was so so so so wrong about App State beating LSU. There, I said it...

(It's not enough: So so so so so so so wrong. Let's not speak of this again. It's a long season, and poor predictions will happen - probably every week. Do I earn ANY counter-balancing credit if Utah holds on to win at Michigan? Or was that so obvious that it doesn't count as an upset?)

Aha, THERE's the Dave Wannstedt we all know...

What a big win for East Carolina; what a bad loss for VA Tech and the ACC...

Florida has plenty of "big-play" guys, but few "regular-play" guys...

God damn, was it hot and humid at The Swamp in the first half...

More later...

-- D.S.

Saturday 08/30 (Very) Quickie:My Own Personal College GameDay

Gainesville, FL -- It is not unique to Gainesville, but there is something so awesome about Game Day in a major college football town. It's my one visit here this season and I'm soaking it up.

Local newspaper special section. Waffle House. RV lot. Campus bookstore (for yet another T-shirt). Tailgate scene. Stadium entry. 90+ degrees with stifling humidity. 90K mayhem.

I suspect that with that newly changed 11 a.m. kickoff and regional interest, the LSU-App State game will draw some attention this morning during the tailgate walk-through and stadium out-of-town-score updates. It was my "Upset Special," but maybe I should have hedged and simply said that App State would cover the 25-point spread.

After the noon schedule of games, most people seem to have an interest in Utah-Michigan -- which everyone seems to be picking as a Ute "upset," but begs the question that if everyone is calling the upset, how much of an upset could it be?

Heading into the evening, Bama-Clemson is the game that everyone around here will be tuning into; I will attempt to convince folks that Mizzou-Illinois is worth having on the 2nd TV or P-I-P.

Anyway, it's a great day to be a college football fan, no matter who you root for.

Meanwhile, this simple concept might be the awesomest thing of the year:

Chad Ocho Cinco.

That's a legal name. I said this when the rumors started a few weeks ago: It tops "World B. Free" as the greatest athlete legal-name-change ever.

Meanwhile, speaking of names, the Knicks traded for Patrick Ewing Jr.? Wow, give the kid a chance, why don't you?

In MLB, it's interesting to be down in north-central Florida, where folks actually talk about the Rays -- they're the closest MLB team and viewed with... curiosity? enthusiasm? Whatever it is, it is fairweather enough that I feel very comfortable, having jumped on the bandwagon back in May. (Really: Who isn't on the Rays bandwagon? How can you begrudge them their success?)

And the Cubs won their 7th straight: I'll be in Chicago next weekend, getting my first in-person taste of Cubs Mania. I believe I am going to start openly rooting for a Rays-Cubs World Series. (Speaking of Chicago baseball, Dice-K shut down the White Sox, in a nice bounce-back game for the Red Sox, in a playoff-quality weekend matchup.)

Michael Phelps is THE "get" for TV folks this fall: First SNL, now Oprah. Not that he doesn't deserve it. (Somewhere along the way, based on emails I have gotten, did I come across as disliking Phelps? Cripes: I labeled the guy the greatest athlete of all time. He transfixed me for an entire week. Couldn't be further from the truth -- I'm a huge huge fan.)

Politics: Reviews are predictably mixed about GOP VP pick Sarah Palin, but the sports connections are undeniable -- she calls herself a "hockey mom"; she is a former championship high school point guard; she wanted to be a sportscaster for ESPN; her husband is a pro snowmobile racer. (Snowmobile racing is the new NASCAR!)

Enjoy the day of games. I'm going to try to update the Twitter feed from The Swamp.

-- D.S.

Friday 08/29 A.M. Quickie:CFB, Sports New Year, NFL, Rays, More

I'm too mellowed into my vacation (or "vacation") to truly reflect on where things have gone since the last Friday of August, two years ago. But suffice to say, it's not going unacknowledged.

Today's SN column can be found here -- a celebration of sports' version of "Happy New Year" that comes when the first full weekend of college football meets the first week before the NFL season begins meets the start of baseball's September surge meets the last real weekend of the summer.

I'm en route to Gainesville later today and trying to squeeze out every last minute of quasi-relaxing beach time this morning, so I'm not sure I'll post again before tomorrow -- but I will definitely be posting all (long-) weekend long.

Two years. Wow. Already?

-- D.S.

CFB Top 25 Weekend Preview and Picks

God, I missed this weekly ritual.

Most games are your typical Week 1 mismatch to get a team's feet wet. Mizzou-Illinois is a rare exception... If they even play the game with the bad weather, I think defending 1-AA champ App State pulls a "don't-call-it-an-upset-this-time" over defending 1-A champ LSU in Baton Rouge. (Yes, really...) I'll watch Alabama-Clemson just because it's a great barometer game for both teams (Clemson, a BCS title-game contender, especially)... I am totally intrigued by Utah at Michigan; it's RichRod's debut with a new offense and Utah is a tough non-BCS draw, even at the Big House (which is why I'm picking the Utes)... And, yes, I will be at The Swamp for Florida-Hawaii... Complete picks follow... Use the Comments to add in your own picks for Game of the Weekend, Upset Special and Storylines to Watch.

(1) Georgia over Georgia Southern
(2) Ohio St over Youngstown St
(3) USC over at Virginia
(4) Oklahoma over Chattanooga
(5) Florida over Hawaii - ATTENDING IN PERSON
(6) Missouri over (20) Illinois – GAME OF THE DAY 1A
Appalachian St over (7) LSU – UPSET SPECIAL!
(8) West Virginia over Villanova
(9) Clemson over (24) Alabama - GAME OF THE DAY 1B
(10) Auburn over LA-Monroe
(11) Texas over Florida Atlantic
(12) Texas Tech over E. Washington
(13) Wisconsin over Akron
(14) Kansas over Florida Int’l
(15) Arizona St over N. Arizona
(16) BYU over Northern Iowa
(17) VA Tech over East Carolina
(18) Tennessee over at UCLA - MONDAY
(19) S. Florida over TN-Martin
(21) Oregon over Washington
(22) Penn St over Coastal Carolina
(25) Pitt over Bowling Green

Best of Non-Top 25:
Utah over at Michigan (!)
Cal over Michigan St
Fresno St over at Rutgers

-- D.S.

Thursday 08/28 A.M. Quickie:CFB 08, MLB Replay, NFL Preseason, More

Vacation continues, and I'm warily eyeing Hurricane Gustav... meanwhile, not even the threat of another hurricane can stop my enthusiasm for college football kicking off tonight.

My SN column today leads with a summary of my "BCS Mess" theory for this year, along with my annual argument that college football's regular season is unmatched in sports.

Meanwhile, I think the Yankees are finished -- you might say that's premature to say before we even get to September; if we learned anything last September, it's that 7-game playoff leads aren't safe. But this ain't the Mets or the NL West -- it's the Red Sox and they're 7 games up on the Yankees...and that's just for the Wild Card.

NFL: Happy to see Derrick Harvey sign with the Jags (finally), but here is a scenario where both sides came out as huge losers -- Harvey for holding out (only to finally get some contract bonus clauses) and the Jaguars for trading up only to not want to pay for it.

Wait: Shawne Merriman is going to play? I appreciate his tough-guy mentality, but his leg is going to snap off, right there on live TV.

Percy Harvin out for Florida's season opener: I kind of saw this coming, but as I'll be sweltering in 100 degree swamp-ass on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, I would have liked to see him -- but not at the expense of aggravating his problem heel. He can save it for the SEC season, as far as I'm concerned. It does basically spike his Heisman hopes, though.

(Tonight's CFB openers: Spurrier is always fun to watch, but I'll be tracking the performance of Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour, who should be a "20/20" player this season. Oh, and I'll be doing my weekly Top 25 picks, and I'm taking Wake to win tonight, with complete Top 25 picks coming tomorrow. Don't forget to sign up for the CFB and NFL Pick 'Em groups -- group name: Daily Quickie Readers.)

Does anyone care about Oscar De La Hoya anymore? I suppose he drives PPV sales, but boxing feels so...anachronistic.

Michael Phelps to host SNL: Do they know that the guy, while incredibly nice-seeming, isn't exactly a dynamic personality?

Jay Mariotti, Cont'd: Per Deadspin, it looks like he left in a huff over a column snafu, which makes his "newspaper is dead anyway" seem even more petty.

(God, there was a time in my life back in college when all I wanted to be was a lead sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times -- no joke. And that was before it came with TV benefits.)

Full SN column here with a ton more in it. (I'm posting to the main archive link; the column isn't up as of 8 a.m., but I'm offline for a bit. Will update with a direct link later.)

-- D.S.